黑料正能量

By Andrew Jenner | August 9th, 2011

The story gets sadder at every twist as Pete Scherer 鈥�09 tells it, sitting at a long, bare table in his attorney鈥檚 office, hands clasped before him.

It鈥檚 about what happened to his brother Carl, younger by 11 years, a 鈥済entle soul鈥� and a talented musician with a promising career ahead of him. Carl was in his mid-20s when the first symptoms of mental illness became apparent, so severe his life began to unravel. Carl struggled to keep a job. His musical ambitions were interrupted.

In 1995, on the advice of his public defender, Carl pleaded guilty to criminal charges after the owner of a car he鈥檇 borrowed reported the vehicle stolen. He served a three-month sentence followed by a period of parole. All the while, his illness continued to get worse.

While still under parole, Carl began placing strange phone calls to numbers picked at random from the phone book. More criminal charges followed. Parole was revoked in 1998. With a clear history of serious mental illness, and without having ever committed a violent crime, Carl entered the state corrections system on a two- to six-year sentence.

There, with inconsistent and ineffective treatment under the supervision of the prison system 鈥� not an organization with a primary focus on mental health care 鈥� Carl entered a final downward spiral. He acted erratically, antagonized other inmates, got written up for misconduct and wound up in the Restricted Housing Unit, where he shared a seven- by nine-foot cell with an inmate who had a violent past. The two were allowed outside the cell no more than five hours per week 鈥� a situation not unlike 鈥渄ropping a goldfish into a shark pond,鈥� as it was later described in legal correspondence with the Scherer family.

On the morning of August 6, 2002, Carl鈥檚 descent through the cracks of the system reached it鈥檚 tragic conclusion. After quarrelling over their morning breakfast rations, Carl鈥檚 cellmate beat him to death. 鈥淚t was deeply painful. I didn鈥檛 know how to cope or deal with the pain,鈥� said Scherer, an electrical technician at Armstrong World Industries, where he鈥檚 worked for three decades.

A month after Carl died, an ad for the Lancaster Area Victim Offender Reconciliation Program caught Pete鈥檚 eye. He trained to become a mediator with the organization, and in the process, decided to finish his bachelor鈥檚 degree. The following February, he entered the management and organizational development program at 黑料正能量鈥檚 Lancaster site.

But Carl鈥檚 death, and the systemic failures it made achingly clear, hovered over Pete. With more than 20 percent of Pennsylvania鈥檚 50,000 prisoners suffering from some kind of mental illness, the next incident, and then the next and the next, were waiting to happen. Something had to be done.

So Pete sued the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in federal court, alleging that it had violated Carl鈥檚 constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment by neglecting to properly treat Carl鈥檚 mental illness while he was in custody. His intention was never to exact simple retribution, or simply seek compensatory damages.

No, Pete wanted to 鈥渓ight a candle in the darkness.鈥� He wanted Carl鈥檚 death to keep the next Carl from dying, and days before the action went to trial, the parties reached a remarkable settlement: the Department of Corrections agreed to launch an effort to reform its treatment of inmates suffering from mental illness.

In July 2009, an advisory board including Pete, mental health advocates and Department of Corrections staff formed Support for Inmates with Mental Illness, or SIMI, with a mission to 鈥減rovide hope and support for mentally ill offenders and their families.鈥�

The group has since launched a pilot program to facilitate better communication between inmates with mental illness, their families, corrections staff and mental health workers at Pennsylvania鈥檚 Waymart prison, with a goal of coordinating effective care and support for mentally ill inmates. (On a related note, for a senior project at Penn State University, Pete鈥檚 daughter, Antoinette, helped conduct a survey of mental health workers within the state corrections system, which identified specific areas with potential for improvement in the way the department handles inmates with mental illness.)

Two years into the SIMI effort, Pete has been encouraged by enthusiastic response from individual psychologists and other staff within the Department of Corrections. At the same time, he鈥檚 been frustrated by theslow pace of change within the organization as a whole. It鈥檚 a challenge with direct bearing on Pete鈥檚 degree in organizational development from 黑料正能量.

鈥淭he [department] as a whole has a lot of great people, but someone at the level of a psychologist doesn鈥檛 have any input up or down to change the process,鈥� said Pete, who is convinced that a less linear, hierarchical decision-making system could vastly improve state prisons鈥� treatment of mentally ill inmates without adding to its budget.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a classic organizational development issue that can be addressed with the right strategy,鈥� he said.

Over the past two years, Pete, sometimes accompanied by Antoinette and wife Marceline, has travelled across Pennsylvania meeting with corrections staff and others involved, driven by his desire to improve the situation of the state鈥檚 inmates with mental illness and their families.

鈥淲e鈥檝e tried to translate [the family鈥檚] dedication into real initiatives within the Department of Corrections that will enhance family contact and communications for our most seriously mentally ill offenders,鈥� said Dr. Jack Walmer, a retired Chief of Psychological Services with the Department of Corrections who鈥檚 worked closely with Pete on the SIMI project. 鈥淚 admire Pete鈥檚 dedication, combined with his real world, pragmatic understanding of the possibilities and, at times, limitations of moving ahead with a new initiative such as this.鈥�

So much has happened in less than a decade, yet there is still so much to do. Pete, who is also a real estate agent in addition to his full-time work with Armstrong, keeps spending his spare time crisscrossing the state, developing and promoting SIMI. And progress does continue to come, in bits and pieces. In June, the Department of Corrections decided to start a second SIMI pilot program at Muncy State Correctional Institution, a women鈥檚 prison.

And the fact that SIMI exists at all, according to Dwight Yoder, the attorney who represented Pete in his suit against the state prison system, is a testament to Pete鈥檚 vision for something good to emerge from his brother’s mishandling and brutal death.

鈥淧eter was able to use Carl鈥檚 death to bring healing to his own family and a lot of other families through this program,鈥� said Yoder. 鈥淭hrough [Carl鈥檚] death, the Department of Corrections is on a path to change how it deals with inmates with mental illness.鈥�